Studies & Research Reports

Project evaluation based on cost-benefit analysis became a routine feasibility exercise across the board, including projects relating to the transport sector – a road, a railway line, or an airport. A methodology of appraisal, viz., the socio-economic impact analysis incorporating distributional issues is being evolved for such projects. This analysis essentially aims at assessing the magnitude and distribution of both direct and indirect effects of a project. A recent World Bank study has attempted to formulate the issues involved in this regard specifically for road projects in the rural areas. The study also suggests an econometric technique for isolating the impact of the road and lists a host of potential variables for this purpose. The study, however, ends with a word of caution that the design and administration of analysis would be complex and costly and hence practical considerations will have to prevail. This study, which is perhaps the first of its kind, was faced with many challenges. These included building the required conceptual and theoretical framework, designing the baseline and post-project household surveys for the collection of relevant data, selecting the set of outcome variables, evolving an appropriate methodology of analysis and, last but not the least, estimating the impact of four-laning of NH2 on the set of chosen outcome variables.

The last quarter of the 20th century saw the re-emergence, after a gap of about 50 years, of an old phenomenon – greater global integration, first through trade and then through finance. It was the former that led to the latter. There were many reasons why global trade increased but at the root of it lay an age-old reason: better connectivity between regions and countries. The obverse of this, of course, was that countries and regions that did not improve their connectivity were left out of the global trading boom. The key factor in this regard has been better connectivity of different sorts – physical, financial, electronic and intellectual. With a view to exploring the developments in this area in India’s neighbourhood, the Asian Institute of Transport Development held a one-day seminar on May 24, 2008 at India International Centre, New Delhi. The background papers and presentations addressed the main theme from different perspectives. The discussions were stimulating, informative and well-focussed. A snapshot of the key issues and guideposts for action is presented in the ‘Overview’ included in this publication. The rich material provides a fertile ground for further research.

The eastern part of the Indian sub-continent is one of the best-defined subsystems in the world.Until 1947, it was a single geographic entity. Trade within this entity proceeded unhindered along traditional corridors developed over the years. The redrawing of the political boundaries in 1947 resulted in the historical routes not being used and even being closed at several points. In addition, a new inherently time- consuming and inconvenient dimension of border crossing emerged. The study highlights current scenario of trade and transport facilitation between India and Nepal. It also makes policy recommendations.

The eastern part of the Indian sub-continent is one of the best-defined subsystems in the world. Until 1947, it was a single geographic entity. Trade within this entity proceeded unhindered along traditional corridors developed over the years. The redrawing of the political boundaries in 1947 resulted in the historical routes not being used and even being closed at several points. In addition, a new inherently time- consuming and inconvenient dimension of border crossing emerged. The study highlights current scenario of trade and transport facilitation between India and Bangladesh. It also makes policy recommendations.

For about 25 years now, national barriers to trade and investment have been dismantled at an unprecedented pace, leading to a degree of integration of product and financial markets that is reminiscent of the pre-twentieth century global economic arrangements. One of the consequences of this has been the spread of production facilities across national borders. Thus, what was started by US multinational firms in the 1960s in Europe has now become a global trend. The result is hugely enhanced volumes of international and regional trade as firms look to the cheapest sources of supply in an increasingly competitive world. The monograph is the outcome of painstaking research of Raghu Dayal, Director (Logistics) in the Institute. In this task, he bring to bear his long years of rich experience in ministries of railways and commerce in India before moving over to the Container Corporation of India as its founder managing director. He has an abiding interest in the subject and dwells on it in various forums. This publication is indeed a continuum of his efforts of years.

The planners and policymakers in India have been underscoring higher economic growth as an outcome as well as a prime-mover of development policies. However, while discussing about the economic growth both as an instrument and outcome, the question that inherently arises is whether economic growth has actually been pro-poor and inclusive in nature. In order to understand the nuances of poverty alleviation process in Indian context, an assessment of pro-poorness of economic growth is all the more essential. In the endeavour towards assessing the pro-poorness of development policy, in general, and economic growth in particular, the monograph begins with a backdrop in Chapter 1 on chronological evolution and reformation of poverty reduction strategy over the successive Five-Year Plans. It also tries to capture the dilemma of the policymakers in addressing development and justice over the successive plans. It then analyses the picture of economic growth and inequality in Chapter 2 and proceeds further and makes an assessment of the state of capability poverty in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 addresses the employment question and tries to assess the pro-poorness of employment growth by analyzing it both quantitatively and qualitatively. Chapter 5 delves into the process involved in the identification of the poor and makes an assessment of the performance of some major poverty alleviation programmes in India in terms of their pro-poorness in delivering outcomes or otherwise. Chapter 6 dwells on the issue of gender inequality in economic and social well-being across the states and analyses briefly the gender perspective in poverty alleviation programmes in India and its outcome. Chapter 7 explores the role of institutional reforms especially right to land in the alleviation of rural poverty in India. Chapter 8 analyses the relationship between physical accessibility or connectivity through all-weather roads and alleviation of poverty and human development. Chapter 9 suggests a way forward towards pro-poorness through reconciliation of economic growth with rights and underscore the importance of pro-poor governance and empowerment along with the warranted interventions in development and macroeconomic policies. The monograph eventually infers that the nation would be able to realise the foremost Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty by 2015 faster, if the policymaking process internalizes the intrinsic as well as the instrumental value of rights.

Containerisation has had the most profound influence on the process and pattern of physical movement of goods.It has totally transformed global trade and transportation characteristics. External trade of industrialised countries is largely effected in containers. India has been a late starter in ushering in containerization but is catching up at a fast pace. There is a paradigm shift in economic policies of the country. There is legitimate emphasis on export promotion and diversification of exports much beyond primary commodities. Containerisation is necessary in attaining this objective. With this objective, the study was carried out and is divided into eight sections. Sections I to III deal with growth of container industry and container traffic forecast for India. Section IV deals with operational problems of container handling ports. Line capacity and its utilization is discussed in Section V. Section VI deals with candidate locations for hubs and alternative suggestions for improving container handling in the country. Section VII examines the financial viability of the proposed sorting yard for container trains at or near Jasai. The final section VIII mentions about various new initiatives taken by the government which may favour location of the container hub at or near Ahmedabad.

There is a strong correlation between pavement design standards and carrying capacity of the vehicles due to interaction between wheel loads and road surface. It is because of this correlation that countries prescribe maximum permissible gross vehicle weight and maximum allowable axle loads. While such norms have been laid down in India also, it is a rare trucker who adheres to these norms. Here, carrying one-and-a-half times the permissible load is commonplace and, sometimes, some dare devils even carry twice the permissible load. The container revolution has further added to the problem because large containers are often moved on two-axle trucks, regardless of the load. This situation results in several negative externalities, but the chief one is the huge damage to the road network, of which only 10-20 per cent is suitable even for the existing prescribed axle loads. In other words, it is overloading which causes damage to as much as 80 per cent of the network. There is also the threat to traffic safety, not to mention the operative life of the vehicles, which gets sharply reduced. With the object of finding out the optimal axle weight at which the total transport costs (road user costs plus the road agency costs of maintenance and rehabilitation) are minimised, we have studied the life-cycle costing of pavement performance under varying axle loads over a 15-year period. The analysis has been carried out for two sample road sections (one a national highway and the other a state highway) under prevailing operational conditions with regard to road surface, traffic levels and their composition.

This study, which is perhaps the first of its kind, was faced with many challenges. These included building the required conceptual and theoretical framework, designing the baseline and post-project household surveys for the collection of relevant data, selecting the set of outcome variables, evolving an appropriate methodology of analysis and, last but not the least, estimating the impact of four-laning of NH2 on the set of chosen outcome variables. Typically, the study of the socio-economic impact evaluation of a public investment project needs to be carried out in two phases – one based on baseline survey data (collected before the project is launched) and the other based on re-survey data (collected after the project has been completed). The partial effects of the project are then assessed by comparing the results of these two studies. The present study of the socio-economic impact evaluation of NH2 will also be carried out in two phases. The second phase will be undertaken on completion of the project. Since the full impact of the four-laning of the highway will take some time to be realised, more than one study may be required to bring out the complete range of effects of the project.

Transport is an integral part of economic and commercial activity. As such, it also requires choices to be made between different modes of transport, such as rail, road, ship, air or even non-motorised transport. At the personal or firm level, the driving factor is the trade-off between price, speed, safety, reliability and convenience. However, the sum of these individual choices, even while maximising individual or firm-level welfare, may not maximise social welfare. This becomes obvious when intermodal choices are examined. Choices that maximise profits, utility or welfare in the short run do not necessarily do so in the long run. In other words, short-run choices between different modes of transport, based on trade-off mentioned above, can lead to outcomes that are unsustainable in the long run in a variety of ways. The intermodal choices have far-reaching economic, social and environmental implications which are not reckoned in individual choices but affect the overall sustainability and efficiency of transport systems. An analysis of road and rail, the two dominant modes of transport in the country, reveals that, over the years, these modes have undergone vast changes both in terms of their growth and respective modal shares. The share of rail has fallen steeply, while that of road has gone up sharply. The share of goods traffic carried by road is now estimated to be as high as 76%, and of passenger traffic 79%. The broad coverage of the chapters in the report is as follows: Chapter 2 discusses issues of environmental concerns in transport. Chapter 3 gives details of the methodological framework of the analysis of modal choice and the development of a database for alternative transport scenarios, including parameters of energy consumption. Chapter 4 examines energy consumption and the emissions of different pollutants on the rail and road modes. Chapter 5 considers the financial costs of the two transport modes. Chapter 6 looks at the material resource requirements in transport and their environmental impact. Chapter 7 discusses the external costs of transport relating to health damage costs and accident costs. Chapter 8 deals with the social costs of transport and integrates the results of the previous chapters. Chapter9 discusses the policy implications related to sustainable modal choice and transport pricing.

The present study seeks to focus attention on the production units owned and operated by the Indian Railways. It traces the historical developments, brings out the need for change in the context of the parlous financial position of the railways and lays down the broad contours for reshaping the units. The objective is to alter their existing technology acquisition paradigm and to reposition them as centres of technological excellence in a competitive globalised market. Another equally important objective is to help the railways to concentrate their attention and resources on their core activities. The railways are critical to the process and pace of economic development. Indian economy has enormously benefited from its catalysing role. It has, however, been clear for the last two decades, that unless Indian railways constantly re-invent themselves they will be left behind in the race. Be it market share, technology, efficiency, costs or whatever, the writing on the wall has been clear. Several restructuring models have been adopted: separation of infrastructure in European countries, atomisation and sale in a hundred odd pieces in the UK, outright sale as a single whole in New Zealand, concessioning in the South American and African countries, deregulation and facilitating restructuring in the US, unbundling and creating competitive units in China, etc. All of these approaches have their unique features. The present study focuses on restructuring production units in Indian Railways.

Cross-border movements take place through land border routes. With regard to the existing infrastructure at the border of India with Nepal and Bangladesh,it is well known that generally, facilities on either side of the border are unsatisfactory. There are detentions to vehicles for completing custom formalities for clearance of cargo. Movement of goods or passenger carrying road vehicles across the borders is either restricted or not allowed. At places, there is no synchronisation of working hours of Customs staff on the two sides of the border. Unusual long time is taken for scrutiny, checking and completion of documents and for completion of formalities with the banks. Banking facilities are inadequate; medical, communication, warehousing, security and fire fighting facilities are deficient; wayside amenities are absent. For want of parking terminals, vehicles are parked on the road creating avoidable congestion. There is only one exit both for passengers and goods creating congestion at the border crossing. It was agreed to carry out the study in two phases. The first phase was to relate to Bangladesh, Nepal and India. The second phase would cover Bhutan, Pakistan and Srilanka. The first phase of the study, covering Bangladesh, Nepal and India was carried out by a team of three officers of AITD. The methodology adopted for the study included designing of the questionnaire which was circulated to Chambers of Commerce of Nepal and Bagladesh and Centre for Policy Dialogue at Dhaka.

Road freight transport is a vital albeit a neglected segment of our transport sector. It has vast opportunities for employment, both direct and indirect, involving haulage, manufacture of vehicles and their maintenance. It is estimated that over 20 million people are employed in various segments of trucking operations. Presently, road transport is catering to about 70% of total freight in the country with railways carrying the balance. On account of its inherent advantages and the strong users’ preference, freight traffic by road has increased twenty-nine times since 1961. The number of goods vehicles has increased from 1.7 lakh in 1961 to 22 lakh in 1996-97 marking a growth of 7.2 % annually. The burgeoning demand and the massive expansion of road goods transport has been triggered by the country’s overall economic and social development. There is no doubt that unfolding of globalisation and the speeding up of the process of economic development will put further pressure on this sector in terms of mobility and distribution. Notwithstanding this, the growth of this sector has not been on planned lines for want of appropriate policy frame-work. There is, thus, a compelling need for policy support if this sector is to meet the growing needs for road transport services efficiently and cost effectively. The trucking industry, at present, is facing numerous problems. Freight operations in India are dominated by small operators performing mainly the haulage function and dependent on others, such as brokers, for business. According to the Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT) survey (1998), 77% of transport operators own a small fleet of five trucks or less; of these, majority are single truck operators. Hardly, 6% of the trucks are owned by companies with a fleet of more than 20 trucks. The existing structure makes the achievement of objectives of conservation of fuel, environment protection, structured maintenance and promotion of road safety difficult.

The World of Pensions

Many Sides of Freedom

Privatisation of Aviation Infrastructure

Securitisation for Infrastructure Financing

Leasing for Transport Sector

Transport-Energy Nexus: Towards Sustainability

National Infrastructure Report: The Quiet Crisis

Darjeeling Himalayan Railway

Indian Planning: Search for Change

Kalka-Shimla Railway

Non-Motorised Transport in India: Current Status and Policy Issues

International Aviation and Outer Space Law and Relations: Reflections on Future Trends